Salem: A Haunted Town in Massachusetts
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What would you think of if you heard the name Salem? Witches? Haunted? or Tourists trap? Let me show you what kind of experience I had there!
Before I went to New Hampshire to be a TA for the Thai Scholars summer camp, I got a few days off and had nothing to do. My friend, Purim, and I decided to go to Boston to visit our friends in Boston college. For some reason, we got so bored and searched for interesting places to go in Massachusetts, and Purim shouted with excitement, “Salem, let’s go to Salem!” Without hesitation, we booked a ticket to Salem and rent a house through Airbnb. It cost us around a hundred dollars for both the house and the roundtrip ticket per person.
By the time we arrived in Salem, it was around 4 PM, and the summer sun was getting low. We decided to throw all the bags in the house and started the journey before sunset! The entire town is full of witch statues and dolls. Some were like those pointy-nose witches you have seen in the movies, and others were like fairies.
This town is more like a tourist spot for American people around MA as we barely saw other Asians. That night we didn’t just go to bed because we were in Salem! We should befriend the darkness, right? Thus, we went for a night tour at 8 PM. There was still some light out, so it was not completely scarily dark. The guide’s storytelling was so amazing that everything seemed REAL!
“The guy told me sometimes he saw a headless ghost through that window…”
She kept pointing to the old, ruined, and dusted buildings. She told us which building was used for caging suspected people. To be honest, it was not scary at all, but the story was so much fun and exciting. If you ever get bored in Salem at night, please consider this option!
On the next day, we went to a random breakfast place. It was funny that one of the waiters seemed surprised to see these four Asians in town. After we were fully energized, we went to see the area outside downtown. Some places are not quite related to the witches and pretty costly, so we decided just to walk past by. However, we spotted a lighthouse near the beautiful sea area on the way back to downtown. That seems to be a good ending to the trip, but we forgot that we forgot to do something important! Yep, we forgot to visit some of the witch museums! We did not know which one is the best witch museum, so we just walked into the most scary-looking one. Inside, there was not much to do. There was no exhibition; instead, we were seated in the middle of the darkroom, still. Then, the show began. A spotlight went to each corner of the room, showing some scary scenes made of wax. It was short but quite worth it. Since the train to Boston was not there till in the afternoon, we decided to go to the Peabody Museum of Art, which has nothing to do with the witches. All in all, this town was great for a short visit. A day or two should be enough. Although many stories of this town are not so believable, I really like how they wickedly used their dull history for boosting their economy.
In this family trip, we visited several famous places in northern Vietnam, namely, Sapa, Hanoi, and Ninh Binh. For some people, the more they see the world, the less impressive some places appear to them. We also did not find this part of Vietnam outstanding from all the places we have been together, yet it was still charming and gave us vacation vibes. I’d recommend those who like natures to visit Ninh Binh; Sapa is also beautiful, but it seems have some construction going on at the top of Fansipan mountain.
After having to postpone the Visa appointment for a year due to the pandemic situation, my parents have now got their first ever US Visa! A month right after they received their passports, now with the US Visa attached to, they flew from Thailand to the US to visit me in Illinois. To be more accurate, WE flew together from Thailand to Chicago, though on different flights. Our itinerary was to visit Chicago, Washington DC, NYC, and, of course, my beloved corn field city, Champaign.
The spring semester ended on May 12, marking the end of my first year as a Ph.D. student at UIUC. To celebrate the hard work, I invited my boyfriend to come visit me in Champaign. But since Champaign has nothing much to do, we also planned a short trip to Chicago and also Florida! Poy had never been to Disney World before, so we tried so hard to make it happen despite the price of Disney world’s tickets. Poy flew from England to Chicago, so our first short trip happened in Chicago! It was my second time in Chicago, so I tried to visit different places than the last time I went to in January.
I usually don’t travel over spring breaks as they are quite short and most schools in the US have spring breaks around the same time, so everywhere is just crowded. However, this break was special because I went to visit my boyfriend in England! We hadn’t seen each other for a while (aka 8 months at least), so I didn’t hesitate to go there when I had a chance. Though I had been to many countries in Europe, I had never visited England. I went there for 5 days not including the flight time, but I felt like I got a very rich British experience thanks to Poy.